Afrocentric vs. Eurocentric Love

The single most important difference between Afrocentric and Eurocentric philosophy and ways of living are in the concepts and practices concerning Love. As I see it, a major reason for these orientations is that Ancient African Spiritual Literature, based upon what was revealed to them, says the Cosmos is composed of different planes of existence, including the Spiritual, the Subjective, the Supernatural (with good and bad aspects), and the Objective.

By contrast, Europeans focus fully only on the Objective Realm; generate (except for angels) primarily bad aspects of the Supernatural (e.g the devil, witches, wizards); are unaware of or are either ambivalent or insincere about the Spiritual (despite paying lip service and engaging in rituals to God); and lack belief in the Subjective. Much of what they say about God is borrowed African Subjective concepts (Amen, Metu Neter I:60)- -e.g. that God is Omniscient (infinite knowledge); Omnipotent (all powerful) and "Omnipresent" (eternal and infinite; temporally and spatially unlimited). Furthermore, most end their prayers wi th "Amen" after the African One Universal High God. However, they make several fundamental alterations. One is creating God in their own image and with certain European characteristics (e.g. an old White man with a white beard)- -called anthropomorphism.

Second--despite the Bible's Revelations 1:14, 15 speaking to the African aspects of Jesus--the Italian Leonardo da Vinci (1452- 1519) “re-colored” Jesus from “copper” to Nordic “white” (Day, p. 26). Third, they declared themselves to be God's messengers with the ridiculous message of being superior and deserving of privileges from all Colored peoples. Fourth, Europeans do not generally talk about or act out their responsibility to be God-like. Fifth, most believe they can buy their way into heaven; or, just before dying, simply ask God for forgiveness from having lived an evil life and thus expect to go to heaven.

So what this amounts to is Europeans believing a mixture of African and self-made concepts. For example, when I asked a European his concept of Love he said it is something shared, other than physical attraction, that leads him to automatically think of others' well-being as opposed to his own; to being open to people with kindness and understanding; to avoid being judgmental; to staying open to new experiences and using each for self-improvement.

He added that love is being happy for experiences; being happy to be alive; and feeling life with an honesty.

Although a small number of Europeans live by this, the Colored Peoples of the world rarely see such nonaggression in a European. The reason, I believe, is that most Eurocentrics' view "love" as an Earth World Emotion, which means it is man-made and changeable for self-interest purposes having nothing to do with Spirituality. Whatever is manmade is Conditional (implying that European type "love" depends upon certain circumstances) and that is anti-Love. Europeans' emphasis on Individualism prevents "Oneness"-bonding of an African type with anyone and promotes fearing everybody.

The European invasion of the New World brought with it the worst of the worse Europeans (e.g. convicts, prostitutes, religious dissidents, the wayward) mixed in with self-made religious practices (based upon the European father's law) of hypocritical Puritans.

Since the duty of early child-care was that of the mother, the approach of White mothers' was to cage their affectionate emotions toward a disobedient child--a form of "conditional love"--so as to break the child's will as a way of fashioning strict obedience. For example, to this day the Amish' way of disciplining members is to shun them for varying lengths of time. To show how they separated evi l desires from "Emot ional love," European slavers carried a bible in one hand and a whip for the Slaves in the other, as seen in today's Euro-American society. By considering "love" as an emotion and by not living a spiritually oriented life means having no concept of sharing a loving space and therefore no Afrocentric type Compassion for anyone.

Add comment

By using our comment system, you agree to not post profane, vulgar, offensive, or slanderous comments. Spam and soliciting are strictly prohibited. Violation of these rules will result in your comments being deleted and your IP Address banned from accessing our website in the future. Your e-mail address will NOT be published, sold or used for marketing purposes.